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Rob, thanks for the many updates and enhancements to the PDT since it's initial release into the wild! I have a couple of questions.

More and more SQL installs are going the route of using mount points for disks. Can the PDT be updated to have a 1G mount point drive, say drive F, and the SQL disks be configured as F:SQLData, F:SQLLogs; F:SQLsysdb, etc?

for clustering, it has been noted that the cluster resources and machines need to be created first in order to do SQL (or Windows) clustering. Can you provide more details on what needs to be done before hand, and if multiple runs of installer.ps1 needs to
occur to completely create a clustered installation?

Glenn – Extender*.xml is identical to Workflow.xml. The files are merged in memory by the PDT scripts. Only small limitation is that the entries from Extender*.xml always get merged to the end of the section, which means you can’t control installation order when combining roles on a single server or VM, they will always get installed after anything from Workflow.xml. Also, if you are defining new roles, you will likely need to use the new -SkipValidation RolesCombination switch since combination validations are not merged.

Last PDT update contains SQL 2012 CU8.. Customer currently on CU6 does not permit CU8. What can be done to prevent CU8 from installing using PDT? Is is ok to just comment-out the CU8 part in the workflow.xml? Is it possible to insert a similar section for CU6 instead?

The downloader script seems to skip downloading of SQL Server binaries when only (5) clustered instances are being used.

Assume you have multiple environments each provisioned with a consistent System Center 2012 SP1 implementation using PDT. The initial provisioning also included all SQL installations. Now you wish to upgrade the entire stack from 2012 SP1 to 2012 R2 using PDT. You have an updated config file and this time you skip the installation of SQL by using the Existing="True" switch. It makes sense when PDT prefers a clean sheet. But would it be possible to automate the upgrade procedure of the existing System Center databases when upgrading from 2012 SP1 to R2?

I do have one question regarding this update. Are there any instructions on the proper use of the Extender*.xml files. Are they simply the same structure as an existing Workflow.XML file, or are there differences or any limitations?.

This looks like an awesome toolkit, too bad I've only just discovered it. I've got a couple of questions though. Being an MCT, I've built a couple of System Center 2012 R2 test environments myself for learning and testing purposes, but would love to be able
to automate this. I'm already suggesting my students to use your PDT to automate the building of a test environment.

Since I have already have got most of the downloads, mostly from MSDN, I'd like to use these files, especially since (at the moment) downloading from the sources you use is very slow, and the download script has stopped downloading completely twice already.
For instance: I've got all required SQL version and the ADK 8.1. I would like to be able to tell the PDT to use the files I've already got.

I've looked at the PowerShell Scripts and in the XML files, and I think I understand what it's doing, e.g. I can see the URL of what is going to be downloaded. What I can't figure out is the type of files and the names you use. For instance, SQL Server 2008
R2 you download the file 'SQLFull_x64_ENU.exe and I've got the file 'en_sql_server_2008_r2_enterprise_x86_x64_ia64_dvd_520517.iso'. I can see the command parameters /q/x:$Download etc. but since I don't know what the result is supposed to look like in t

For now I've solved the download issue by removing the biggest downloads (temporarily) from the Workflow.xml so I could download all the other, smaller, components.

My questions are:
Can I use my ISO files and extract the content to the download folder structure? If so, do could you provide a listing of the finished download folder, so I can see what is supposed to be where?
Even more useful: can I use these files from another location, preferably UNC path by editing/extending the Workflow.xml, and if so how?

Furthermore I'm curious why SQL Server 2008 R2 is required and downloaded.
And I'd also like to know if I could use the most recent versions such as SQL Server 2012R2 SP2, ADK 8.1 Update 1 and SharePoint 2013 SP1 for instance.